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May 13, 2011

The wrong number

The
cell phone ringing near my bed woke me from the deep slumber. I put on
the light to see the time. The clock on the wall read 11.15pm. Picking up
the phone, I responded and came to know that the caller was a woman.
She didn't wait to know who was receiving her call and went on with her
babble for a few minutes. Hearing her babble in Sharchop, I could make
out that she was from some rural area in the east. I couldn't cut off
the phone and could speak since she didn't give me a chance to do so.
She called me "nimin" (sister) and went on with her sad tale.
After sometime, I asked her where she was calling from and she responded
saying that she was calling from home. I had to interrupt her by saying
that she was talking to the wrong person but she said that the number
belonged to her sister. I politely asked her to check the number again
and switched off the cell . I didn't want to get anymore midnight calls
from some unknown number.

A
few years ago, someone from Thimphu used to call my number from a
landline number saying that he wanted to talk to his boss by the name
Dophu. Many a times I said I didn't know any one by such name but every
few months I got the repeated calls from the same number and one day, I
got so irritated that I shouted "Dophu shi seyi". The call stopped altogether.

Now
I am planning to keep my cell switched off when I go to bed because I
don't want to entertain any wrong numbers henceforth. Thanks to the
advancement of the technology that we can't even have a peaceful night's
sleep.:(